Situation:

The Platinum Freight® Management Young Entrepreneurs Program awards qualifying recipients under the age of 25 valuable commercial benefits including free advice on best importing and exporting practice as well as a series of free and discounted Customs Clearances which Platinum Freight covers costs of on their behalf.

The goal of the program is to help young people on their path to success, both commercially and through education and guidance.

Active since 2010, the program has already helped more than a dozen young businesspeople start up successfully.

Hobart-based start-up business Poultry Australia is the newest entrant to the program.

Goal:

For Platinum Freight® Management to offer detailed advice, guidance and education about Customs processes to give Poultry Australia confidence to import goods successfully. Also to reduce importing costs so that the business has a better chance to expand successfully.

Client background:

Founded by Angus Free in 2013, Poultry Australia began as a web-based business selling fertile chicken eggs to incubators, brooder equipment and egg candlers and shipping Australia-wide.

Achieving early interest and a steady stream of customers, Free wanted to expand his product offering to include new and more efficient egg incubators, imported from China in quantity sufficient to sea freight.

“My vision for Poultry Australia is for it to become an industry leader supplying internationally sourced poultry products, including a large incubator range, treadle feeders, pluckers, automatic drinkers, ceramic brooder globes and brooder shades.

Successful relationship building with a few key Chinese suppliers has seen Free achieve exclusive Australian agency for a new range of products, meaning his future importing schedule will be significantly larger.

As such, Free required advice on how to ship cost-effectively, and what Customs processes were required for larger shipments.

“I have sourced Chinese suppliers for my products but, as someone who has never imported by sea [freight] before, I was relieved to find a service such as Platinum Freight’s that could provide me with the assistance I need to progress through this exciting and daunting process.”

Job detail:

The first sea freight shipment was scheduled for September 2015 and included 100 small egg incubators arriving to Hobart from China.

Free knew from the outset that he wanted to do business with China. He applied for the Young Entrepreneurs Program and began to immediately take value from the advice and information we provide to importers in the program.

Platinum Freight CEO Peter McRae said: “Often, for importers, selecting the product and supplier is the easy part, the difficult and costly aspects follow, such as what the supplier’s shipping company would be charging the importer for port charges, also import duty costs, the import GST, the Import Processing Charge and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) requirements for all sea freight shipments. Under the program we negotiate on the importer’s behalf to find reductions in fees wherever possible, particularly in port charges. The reduction can be small but, for a start-up, any cost saving can be a blessing.”

Platinum Freight worked with Poultry Australia throughout the first shipment, assessing all import paperwork in draft format and approving the final paperwork, as well as pre-clearing cargo arriving in another city to allow a smooth transition of cargo to the importer’s local port without additional fees and delays.

Results:

Platinum Freight successfully Customs-cleared the first shipment by pre-clearing while the order was in transit.

The egg incubators breezed through Customs in 10 minutes, were swiftly collected by Angus’s pre-arranged logistics provider and delivered to Poultry Australia’s warehouse within one day of the goods arrived in Hobart.

Under the Young Entrepreneurs Program, the shipment saved Poultry Australia in excess of $500, which included free customs clearance, port charges negotiation and free advice and mentoring. Poultry Australia paid the necessary fees such as import duty, import GST, Import Processing Charge, port charges and delivery to their site.

Poultry Australia will receive the same partnership and savings on it the next two shipments to help the business implement efficient importing systems for a successful future.

Learning outcome:

Many new importers receive too little education about Customs processes, efficient time planning and understanding of the costs associated with importing and exporting. The Young Entrepreneurs Program is designed to assist young business people to ensure they are a generation of informed importers, working efficiently within the law.

“Platinum Freight Management has been exceedingly helpful in providing time and advice throughout the importation process. While the first import can be challenging, Platinum Freight Management streamlined the customs clearance process to make it as hassle free as possible. I look forward to continuing to work with Platinum Freight Management into the future for all of Poultry Australia’s customs clearance requirements.” – Angus Free, Poultry Australia.

Acknowledgement

The staff and management of Platinum Freight® Management Pty Ltd would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which we work and earn an income; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. It is upon their ancestral lands that our business continues to operate.